RE: Re: Language

From: Andrew Solovay <asolovay_at_...>
Date: Thu, 31 Mar 2005 00:39:39 -0800

Douglas Seay [mailto:douglas-seay_at_...]
> Andrew Solovay:
> > Maybe [Heortling and Sartarite] aren't two different
> > languages--I expect a native Sartarite could converse
> > with a Heortlander without much trouble--but enough to
> > make it hard to understand someone speaking
> > quickly in the other tongue.
>
> I think that they're the same language because the "talk
> slowly and loudly" trick might actually work.

That's what I had in mind. If a Heortlander and a Sartarite *want to* talk to each other, they can do it easily enough. There might be a few "beg pardons" and they have to talk a little more slowly than usual, but they can do it. (I once carried on a conversation where the closest thing we had to a common language was that I spoke German and he spoke Yiddish. Our conversation was *slow*, but we could talk.)

But if a Sartarite tried to overhear a conversation between Heortlanders, he might have difficulty. Or if he tried to pass himself off as a Heortlander.